hey

Meanings

1. 1
   intj

   An exclamation to get attention.

   Hey, look at this!

2. 2
   intj

   A protest or reprimand.

   Hey! Stop that!

3. 3
   intj

   An expression of surprise.

   Hey! This is new!

4. 4
   intj

   An informal greeting, similar to hi.

   Hey! How's it going?

5. 5
   intj

   A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.

   Hey? How's that?

6. 6
   intj

   Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.

   "Who 's a cur - now - hey?"

7. 7
   intj

   A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

   The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".

8. 8
   verb

   To greet with a "hey"

Etymology

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Ma…